Voice mail systems allow a caller to leave a recorded voice message for a called party when the called party is unwilling or unavailable to take the call. Whether the voice mail system is deployed with a private branch exchange (PBX) switch or with a central office telephone switching system, one mailbox is assigned for each telephone extension. The voice mail system is much like an answering machine on each extension but with important advantages. A principal advantage is that the voice mail system will take a message when the called party is using the telephone. With an answering machine, if the called party is on the telephone, the caller receives a busy signal. An advantage of the answering machine is that the called party can allow the answering machine to answer an incoming call when the called party is present and the called party can then listen to the caller leave a message. If, while listening to the message, the called party wishes to speak to the caller, the called party can then pick up the telephone. A limitation of the answering machine is that this feature cannot be used if the called party is on the telephone with a third party. Another limitation is that if the called party was unavailable to hear the beginning of the message when the caller began to leave it, the called party cannot play the message from the beginning while it is being left by the caller.